Gothic posts

After filing for bankruptcy last January, time may have run out for European game publisher JoWood. According to a report on the German language web site Boerse-Express.com, (translated by Babel Fish) JoWood has apparently not been able to bring in new investors to save the company and it looks like the publisher is going to close down.

JoWood owns a lot of major game franchises including the Gothic RPG series and the Painkiller first person shooter series. It's likely that some other publisher could buy the rights to these and other Jowood game titles. JoWood also owns Canada-based Dreamcatcher Games which it acquired in 2007. It's currently unknown if the Dreamcatcher business will also shut down alongside JoWood.

The first three game in publisher JoWood's Gothic fantasy RPG series were developed by Piranha Bytes. Then the fourth game in the series, Arcania: Gothic 4, was developed by Spellbound while Piranha Bytes went on to make another open world fantasy RPG series Risen.

Now a fan site's interview with Piranha Bytes' co-founder Mike Hoge has opened up the possibility that the developer will be working on the Gothic series again. According to Hoge's statement, "We get the rights to Gothic back when we have finished Risen 2. Why? Because we did only sell them to our ex-publisher for a certain amount of time ;)."

However another Piranha Bytes team member, Michael Rüve, posted up word (in German) on the World of Players message board that Hoge's statements should perhaps not be taken at face value. There's also the fact that JoWood is currently in serious financial troubles and have delayed two of its upcoming games indefinitely.

The Gothic series is known for its methodical, almost plodding pace of gameplay and story. While the developer did launch an offshoot with Risen, the series as a whole has remained untouched since Gothic 3. ArcaniA, despite the name change, is the newest entry in the series, and the newest trailer came out very recently. The first part is not that impressive, thanks to dated cutscene material, but the subsequent gameplay shots sure are juicy! We do love ponderous combat, as long as it feels weighty, so if Gothic 4 can pull it off, we'll be ecstatic.

If Steam can do a big summer sale, why can't GamersGate? The PC game download site has just launched a month long summer sale of various titles, with each week focusing on a game genre. For the first week of the sale, the site is cutting prices on a number of role-playing games.

The big summer sale for the Steam PC game download service continues today as a ton of titles have had their prices cut. From now until 1 pm Eastern time on Sunday the games listed below will be discounted even more than they would under the current sale. Break out the debit cards for this one.

Sometimes you just need to sit down, slide a floppy into your A: drive, and enjoy gaming retro style. We know this all too well! That's why we have a list of the best and brightest from days long gone. These are some of our favorite games of all time, and we're sure that you'll love them as much as we do, if not more. Welcome to Boot Disk, and enjoy the retro ride!

Some RPGs, like Planescape Torment, are intense, story-driven affairs that rely on drawing the player into a network of intrigue and complicated choices. Others, like Diablo, are fast-paced action with minimal story that causes uncontrollable addiction to the increase of stats and gathering of "phat lewts". Then there's Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption (hereafter referred to simply as Vampire Redemption or Redemption). It mixes fast-paced Diablo-esque combat with a heavy focus on story to craft a dark gothic-punk world of betrayal and mystery. Since it was recently re-released on GoG.com, just about anyone can experience the first (and arguably best) World of Darkness game to ever be released.

The PC downloadable site Gamersgate has already taken the liberty of announcing what games will get their discount for the current weekend. From now until Sunday, the historical strategy game Grand Age: Rome will be 50 percent off its usual GamersGate price. Also the space strategy game AI War: Fleet Command will have it's normal GamersGate price cut by 30 percent.

In additonn all of the games in the Gothic fantasy RPG series are 40 percent off at Gamersgate this weekend. And don't forget; the site has already announced a sale of all games from publisher Buka from now until Sunday with prices cut between 50 and 75 percent.

If you have been playing "2009 Game Release Fantasy League" at home you can go ahead and check off yet another title that was supposed to be out this year. Arcania - A Gothic Tale, the upcoming next game in the long running Gothic RPG series, won't make it out this year as previously announced.

In a new press release today, publisher JoWood stated they have "committed substantial extra development budget" for the Spellbound Entertainment-developed game so they have decided to give the title a little more production time. in the meantime, Piranha Bytes, the makers of the first three Gothic RPGs, will release their new title, Risen, this October.

The DRM-free gaming web site GoG.com is expanding its library of titles yet again. On Thursday they announced that the alternate history first person shooter Iron Storm is a new GoG.com member. The game, set in a world where WW I never ended, was released in 2002 by Microids. It can be purchased and downloaded from GoG.com for just $9.99.

Also GoG.com's weekend sale is for the first two games in the Gothic fantasy RPG series from publisher JoWood. From now until the end of the day on Monday you can get either game for just $7.49 each, a 25 percent savings from its normal GoG.com price.